"I need an explanation." Daphne's voice was a raw whisper. She dropped the petition onto the hall table as if it were contaminated.

Damian looked at her, his expression carved from the same ice that had always lived behind his eyes when he looked at her. "An explanation? You knew what this was. The game is over."

Isabelle stepped forward, unclasping the moonstone necklace. "Daphne, don't be upset," she said, her voice dripping with false sympathy. "The necklace... if you like it, you can have it."

She held the necklace out like a peace offering made of poison.

Revulsion coiled in Daphne's gut. "I don't want your pity," she hissed, swatting Isabelle's hand away.

The movement was sharp, but she barely made contact.

Isabelle let out a small gasp. Her body swayed. The necklace, held loosely, swung forward. The heavy moonstone pendant dropped with a precision that felt almost choreographed into a bowl of steaming French onion soup on the dining table.

Daphne saw it happen—saw Isabelle's hand arc toward the scalding liquid, slow and deliberate, like a dancer completing a rehearsed pose. She could have pulled back. She could have avoided it.

She didn't.

"Oh!" Isabelle cried, then immediately plunged her hand into the broth. A scream tore from her throat.

She cradled her hand. The back of it was an angry, blistering red. Blisters bloomed across her pale skin like a terrible flower. She looked at Damian, tears welling in her eyes with the perfect timing of a seasoned performer.

Damian's face went rigid. He crossed to Isabelle in two strides and knelt beside her, taking her injured hand in both of his with a gentleness that looked almost reverent. He didn't shout. He didn't roar. When he spoke, his voice was quiet—so quiet Daphne had to strain to hear it.

"My God, Daphne."

He didn't even look at her when he said it.

"She didn't push me," Isabelle whispered, her voice trembling exquisitely. "It was an accident. Please don't blame her."

The words were a masterstroke. The more she defended Daphne, the guiltier Daphne appeared.

Damian wasn't listening. He was gently blowing on Isabelle's reddened skin, his eyes filled with a tenderness that made it hard for Daphne to breathe. He scooped Isabelle up into his arms as if she were made of glass.

"I'm calling my private doctor from Mount Sinai," he said, already moving toward the elevator. "He'll meet us there."

He didn't give Daphne a second glance.

But as he walked toward the elevator, his steps faltered. Just for a heartbeat. His gaze dropped to the floor, where the moonstone necklace lay abandoned on the marble. The stones caught the chandelier's fractured light, glowing softly—the same light that had once reminded Daphne of captured moonlight.

He looked at the necklace.

Then he stepped over it.

The elevator doors slid shut behind him.

Daphne stared at the necklace lying on the cold marble floor. He hadn't picked it up. The gift he had given Isabelle just hours ago, the stones he had said matched her eyes—he had walked right past it.

The edges of her vision turned black. The world tilted. Her body went limp, and she crumpled to the floor.

The last thing she saw was the moonstone necklace, its soft glow reflecting the shattered light above.

The last thing she heard was Mrs. Haskin's voice, calling her name from very far away.

She woke to the sterile smell of antiseptic. A hospital bed. The sheets were coarse. This wasn't Mount Sinai. The fluorescent lights and the distant wail of a siren told her she was in a public hospital. The kind of place Damian Sterling would never set foot in.

Mrs. Haskin was sitting by her bed, her eyes red-rimmed.

"What happened?" Daphne's voice was a dry rasp.

Mrs. Haskin's shoulders slumped. "Mr. Sterling took Miss Reed to Mount Sinai. I had to call 911 for you, ma'am."

The words landed like stones.

Mrs. Haskin seemed to make a decision. "Ma'am," she began, her voice low. "Do you know why Mr. Sterling married you?"

Daphne shook her head.

"It was his grandmother. Mrs. Eleanor Sterling's will."

Daphne stared at her.

"There was a codicil," Mrs. Haskin explained. "It stipulated that Mr. Sterling had to marry you, and remain married for five years, to inherit his full controlling shares of Sterling Industries."

The room started to spin. Five years of coldness, of rejection, of wondering what she had done wrong—all reduced to a clause in a legal document.

"Mrs. Eleanor was very fond of you," the housekeeper continued softly. "But Mr. Sterling... he has always believed that you knew about the codicil. That you used it to trap him. His heart has always been with Miss Reed."

It wasn't a lack of love. It was active, festering resentment. He saw her as a blackmailer. A gold digger who had manipulated his grandmother.

Her marriage was a prison sentence. Her love, her efforts, her pain—the price he had to pay for his empire.

And now, the five years were up.

Every cold shoulder, every dismissive word, every cruel act suddenly made perfect, horrible sense.

Daphne closed her eyes. A single tear escaped and traced a cold path down her temple, disappearing into the cheap hospital pillow.